Laces are generally used in shoes, garments, leather accessories, and other such items requiring facile adjustable tying and release means. Laces with fanciful decorations are typically used to enhance the appearance and aesthetic appeal of articles, such as shoes, employing them. New, more decorative laces are continually developed and successfully marketed reflecting an ever present need and demand for them.
Laces, in particular shoelaces, have been adorned in a variety ways as by coloration, printing of pictures and or words thereon, inclusion of light emitting devices therein (U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,851 to Wood), construction with different synthetic, natural and metallic fibers, inclusion of coils or springs therein (U.S. Pat. No. DES 327,568 to Dutkanych) and the like.
Shoelaces have also be adorned with a variety of 2- and 3-dimensional objects. U.S. Pat. No. 2,650,399 to Torelli discloses knot retainers through which shoelaces are laced to aid in maintaining shoelaces tied. U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,273 to Huttle discloses elastic shoelaces with decorative fastenings through which the shoelaces are laced.
Fixture of 3-dimensional objects, i.e. aglets, onto lace ends is also known. The Iny patent (U.S. Pat. No. 2,612,135) discloses miniature bells as aglets which are affixed onto the ends of shoelaces once the laces have been laced through the eyelets of a shoe. The bells are snapped onto the shoelace ends by employing a ball & socket type configuration.
Wilson (U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,251) discloses a variety of 3-dimensional objects affixed to the ends of shoelaces. These aglets employ another ball & socket type configuration for attachment purposes.
Thus, the art establishes the need for improved laces having aglets that form 2- or 3-dimensional objects; however, none of the known laces have aglets that are collapsible, expandable and sufficiently small to fit through an eyelet of a shoe, and all of the known aglets which are 3-dimensional objects require assembly subsequent to lacing of a shoe.
Absorbent materials, such as natural sponge or poly(vinyl alcohol) based sponge, are used as toys. Such materials expand when placed in water to form a preconfigured object. For example, a sponge in the shape of a duck can be collapsed, and when immersed in water, the sponge will expand to form the preconfigured duck. When the sponge toy dries, it will shrink only a small degree and generally remain approximately the same size wet or dry. Although these sponge toys do not generally completely collapse to substantially their original size after drying, they can generally be collapsed either manually or mechanically after they have been expanded.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,952,462 to Planin discloses machine collapsed sponge toys that can be placed in water and expanded to form preconfigured, generally flattened 2- or 3-dimensional objects such as puzzles, animals, balls and cylinders.
There is no teaching or suggestion in the art of the invention as described and claimed herein. Due to the ever present demand for shoelace novelties, there remains a need for laces providing new decorative features.